Elise Pearson

Elise Pearson is transforming urban environmental education. At Maple Grove Elementary in Vancouver, she introduced an Outdoor Education course rooted in ecological restoration, place-based learning, and Indigenous ways of knowing. By turning the local Arbutus Greenway into a living classroom, Elise has found a creative way to overcome the lack of access to natural spaces that many urban environmental educators face. With her 12 Outdoor Education classes (grades 4 to 7), she has restored 300m² of rail trail overrun with invasive species, planting 2000 native plants across 55 species.

For this inspiring work, Elise has been named the grand prize winner of the 2025 Edward Burtynsky Award for Teaching Excellence in Environmental Education.

Elise’s teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that environmental education should be experiential, relational, and transformative. Drawing on Indigenous teachings of reciprocity and kinship, she encourages her students to build a connection to the land and the communities around them. Her students don't just study local ecosystems, they care for them. Through this work, students develop ecological literacy, empathy, agency, and hope, and an understanding of how to be good community members. 

“My pedagogy is rooted in place, guided by Indigenous ways of knowing, and driven by student voice. This year, I saw students transform from passive learners to active stewards. The four branches of inquiry

didn’t just support learning—they deepened it, made it meaningful, and helped students see themselves as part of a living, interconnected world.”

Branch 1: Inquiry and Engagement/Lighting the Fire

Curiosity is foundational to Elise’s teaching practice. She encourages her students to wonder, observe, and ask their own questions, which, she believes, makes learning more meaningful and self-directed. She also aims to model curiosity herself, showing her students that wonder does not end with adulthood. 

This past school year, Elise tasked each of her students to select a native plant to observe throughout the seasons. Elise believes that by asking students to choose their own plant, it fosters a personal connection and a sense of wonder, naturally inspiring curiosity and thoughtful questions. 

In Elise’s classroom, many different mediums were used to deepen inquiry. Her students created watercolour illustrations, wrote plant profiles, and made short films about plants, all to allow them to explore their interests in personal and creative ways. 

“By rooting our learning in place and giving students the freedom to explore, I help them see that the natural world is full of stories waiting to be uncovered.”

Branch 3: Integrated Learning/The Flow of Knowledge

Elise’s Outdoor Education class encourages environmental inquiry across a range of subjects and perspectives, integrating learning experiences that connect science, social studies, languages arts, math, and the arts. Students explore seasonal change, pollinators, and climate resilient native species through science, while aspects of the class aligned with social studies invite students to consider Indigenous land stewardship and urban planning. Math is woven in as students track how plants grow over time, analyze biodiversity within the Greenway, and create maps to plan restoration areas. Language arts are incorporated through field journals, plant research, and storytelling, and visual arts are integrated through botanical illustrations and cyanotypes. Elise believes this interdisciplinary approach helps students understand that environmental issues are not isolated, and are social, cultural, scientific, and personal. 

“This approach fosters critical thinking, creativity, and a sense of agency. Students begin to

understand that their learning is not just about school—it’s about how they live, relate, and act in the world.”

Innovation and Community Impact

Aside from the Arbutus Greenway Project and other Outdoor Education work at Maple Grove elementary, Elise has also made an effort to share her work with other educators, both in the form of resources and professional development. She facilitated a session for the Vancouver School Board’s Indigenous Focus Day on “Plant Kind and Connection to Place,” as well as presenting at the Nipika Environmental Educators Conference. She has also developed plant ID cards and teaching resources for all 55 species in her outdoor classroom, which has been shared with colleagues from the district. Elise’s work has also reached the wider community, building a relationship with the Coast Salish Plant Nursery, local ecologists, and the City of Vancouver, who have helped her ensure that their restoration efforts align with both ecological and cultural knowledge. Her classes have hosted community planting days and shared their student-created field guide with the local library. She also welcomed a PhD student from Simon Fraser University who is researching her program as a model of urban eco-education. 

Integrating Indigenous Perspectives

Elise ensures that Indigenous perspectives are central to her Outdoor Education classes, approaching it with humility, care, and a commitment to ongoing learning. Indigenous ways of knowing are woven into how she and her class learn, relate, and act on the land, rather than being treated as an individual unit in the course. Elise and her students created a class set of hide drums, and she collaborated with the Vancouver School Board’s Indigenous Education Team to teach every student in the school the Coast Salish Anthem. 

In Elise’s class, they explore teachings such as honourable harvest, traditional uses of native plants, and the importance of reciprocity, guided by Indigenous authors and knowledge keepers such as Robin Wall Kimmerer, Monique Gray Smith, Leigh Joseph, and Tracy Healy. Elise helps her students understand that environmental education is about relationships, responsibility, and respect, not just ecosystems. 

“I believe that respectfully integrating Indigenous perspectives means building relationships, listening deeply, and recognizing the knowledge systems that have cared for this land since time immemorial.”

Elise believes sustainability begins with relationship, and that when students feel connected to a place, they begin to care for it. By participating in the Arbutus Greenway restoration project, her students engage in repeated acts of care that help them understand that stewardship is a lifelong relationship.

-By Andreas Gross